Pbo-Newsletter-Dec-2020
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NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2020 A Publication from Portobello Community Incorporated. www.portobello.org.nz Email:- [email protected] A wonderful Christmas memory from a few years ago when the children of Portobello School starred in an Air New Zealand Christmas promotional advertisement. Chairman’s Corner Another year goes by and roll on a healthier 2021. ortobello Community Inc has been busy with the Food Truck promotions - don’t forget the one on this Sunday. You might have seen the beautiful mural on the power box at the bottom of Seaton Road - a splendid job done by Andrew Nicholson. If anyone would like to offer a donation towards doing more or even maybe sponsoring one yourself please contact one of the Committee. They certainly brighten up the place and we would love to see more. The notice board is up again - thanks to the committee members for their efforts. It is the community’s notice board so please think of others when you use it and restrict your notices to a maximum of A5 size. Our next big market day will probably be our Summer one on Sunday February 13th but be assured we will let you know closer to the time. Our heartfelt thoughts go out to Warren & Heather and Josh and Alice & family after their terrible losses and a big hats off to our local community for pitching in and being a comfort to them all. And such an amazing job done by all our local emergency teams. The Portobello Pump Park plan is advancing along nicely with some great effort put in by members of the committee and friends. We will keep you posted as this advances and let you know how you may be able to help with this great project. On behalf of the committee I wish you a safe and happy Xmas and a better year next year. Wayne Cameron - Pbo Comm Inc Chair Tena Koutou everyone I would like to start by thanking you all for your continued support and assistance throughout this year. It would be an understatement to say this year has been demanding on us all and unprecedented in respect of the Covid 19 outbreak and subsequent restrictions on everyone. The way you as a community accepted what needed to be done and did it quite frankly made my job a lot easier, it did not go unnoticed. I thank you for that. The fire on the 21st again showed me how this community just kicks into action when it is needed. From the fire guys and girls who went running towards the flames to save life/animals and property, the Community Board who always have things in place and order in looking after those affected, to you all as a community in the aftermath. You are all champions and it makes me proud to be a part of this area. When I sit back and reflect it is obvious to me this could have been a lot worse had it not been for those mentioned above. You may have read recently there have been a couple of thefts up Pukehiki way. These crooks are targeting scrap metal which is an easy win for them. It a good time to have a walk around your property and just see what you have lying around that may light up the eyes of these thieves. Take a bit of time and put/lock away any items of value that are visible to or easily accessed by these people. And as always please report any suspicious behaviour, your gut instinct I promise you will more than not be right. With Xmas rapidly arriving and the time of year for staff functions and festive cheer I wish I didn’t have to but “NEED TO” say the following. If you’re having drinks then please arrange for transport home. There is absolutely no excuse for getting behind the wheel after having a few. It saddens me that in the past few weeks there have been 3 people processed for drink driving on the peninsula. I’m afraid that is 3 too many and I will be completing breath test randomly over the next few weeks with the help of the Road Policing staff from Dunedin. DON’T BE THAT PERSON!! CRACKED RECORD SECTION Five more peninsula residents have chosen to ignore the round red and white speed signs on the low road in past 2 weeks. The highest speed was 74kmph in a 30kmph. That’s all I want to say about that. Finally I will be working right through Xmas and the New Year, so I look forward to catching up with you over this period. If you’re lucky enough to have a few weeks off enjoy time at home or on holiday with your whanau and friends. From Jo, myself and the boys have a wonderful Xmas and holiday period, please stay safe, look after one another and bring on 2021. Until next time, take care. Aaron News from the Otago Peninsula Community Board I’m writing this on the first day of summer, which after the year we’ve had can’t come fast enough. Despite the “strangeness” of the year we’ve had with Covid-19 it will be nice to have a break over the Christmas and New Year period. Community Board Funding – It was very pleasing to be able to help the Scott Hall committee at Harwood with their application to fund a defibrillator. The hall committe have worked hard fundraising over $2000 towards this new development and the Board were pleased to contribute a further $1700 to the purchase for the community. If your group are looking for funding it is very helpful to have members of your group come and speak at our public forum. Thanks to Chris Helm and Graeme Mcnulty for coming to the meeting. Community Plans and DCC Long Term Plan – I wrote about this last time and its worth repeating once again. Next year 2021 is going to be a very important Long-Term Plan for the Dunedin City Council. With the City Council now working towards the 2021-2031 Long Term the Community Board must have a clear picture on what the Peninsula Community’s priorities are. It’s too easy for the community to allow the Board to act and speak for them, when actually Board’s need vocal people to support them. If we all don’t actively participate in this process, we may miss out on seeing our community needs met or worse. Portobello Fire – The recent fire in Beaconsfield Road was a significant event for the community and devastating for everyone concerned. The main thing is that no one was hurt in the fire and that includes our volunteer fire brigade. I can’t speak highly enough of our brigade and the work they did in fighting the fire. Its clear to me that without having them in the community we may have seen a significantly different scenario had we been solely reliant on a brigade from town. I thought the Police with Aaron Smith also did a great job on the day. For the Board its always our role to support the people trained in managing these events and we were happy to play our role in the evacuation process. So once again, my grateful thanks to our brigade, police and their city colleagues. Fire Support for Affected Family – What is it about the Otago Peninsula that makes this community so special? From the time of the fire to its aftermath the support and assistance to Alice and her children was phenomenal. To all of you in the community who baked, provided essential clothing, toys, made donations and did all manner of amazing things you deserve considerable praise and acknowledgement. Your generosity and kindness are what makes this community special and myself and the Board have nothing but admiration for you all. Well done and many thanks. Board Meeting & Funding Applications – The Community Board is to meet on Thursday February 18th at the Portobello Bowling Club. Just a reminder that we still have funding for community projects and welcome people to the meetings and public forum. If you’d like to raise any issue through the public forum please contact me and I can add you to the agenda. Facebook Please take the opportunity to use it if you can and share information with your friends, neighbours and whanau. https://www.facebook.com/pencomboard/ If you have any issues that you would like to raise or discuss please don’t hesitate to contact myself or your local Board member Paul Pope - Otago Peninsula Community Board Chairman [email protected] (03) 4780630 or 0274668446 Museum News Its been a busy year at the Museum with lots of projects being completed and ongoing. Thanks to all our great Tuesday morning and Sunday afternoon volunteers. You help make a difference. As a thank you the Committee held a bbq lunch at the Museum for our volunteers. Earlier in the year there was some interest in the caravan we have at the Museum and a book written about it called ‘The Christmas Caravan’. The Museum has 5 copies of this book for sale for $15. You can email us if interested in a copy or pop along to the Museum, pick up a copy and also check out the Caravan. There are Christmas decorations in it at present so it certainly living up to its name. Many thanks to Betty Hellyer who is typing up the interviews done on local people and put onto tapes quite a few years ago.